Indian-Origin Teenager Gets Intel Funding for Low-Cost Braille Printer

If Shubham Banerjee cannot lay claim to being the world's youngest venture capital-backed entrepreneur, he comes very close.

Banerjee was 12 years old when he closed an early-stage funding round with Intel Capital , the company's venture capital arm, last month for his prototype for a low-cost Braille printer. Since then, the San Jose, California middle-schooler has turned 13.

That's young, even by the standards of Silicon Valley, where many venture capitalists unapologetically prefer to fund youth over experience. Young entrepreneurs usually have reached at least their mid-teens when they hit it big. Nick D'Aloisio, founder of online news aggregator Summly, was 17 when Yahoo bought his company last year for $30 million (roughly Rs. 180 crores).

Brothers John and Patrick Collison, behind payments service Stripe, were 16 and 19 when they sold an earlier business to a Canadian company for $5 million (roughly Rs. 30 crores).

RMP Infotech

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Noida, (U.P.) - 201301. India.

Tel No - + 91 120 4150486

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Paytm Aims for $1 Billion in Transactions by March 2015; Plans to Raise $150 Million in Funding

Mobile commerce firm Paytm is aiming to clock $1 billion (approximately Rs. 6.15 crores)gross merchandise value (GMV) by March next year on the back of growing smartphone penetration and rising number of customers buying from e-commerce sites.

"We believe by the end of current fiscal, we should be crossing $1 billion GMV,"Paytm Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Shekhar Sharma told PTI.

He said growth drivers for the company are smartphone and Internet penetration, besides rising number of consumers opting for purchases from online shops.The company has already crossed $600 million (approximately Rs. 3690 crores)GMV.

The company, which started by offering mobile recharge and utility bill payments, now offers a full marketplace to consumers on its mobile application.The company, however, still gets 80 percent of its business from recharge and bill payments and the rest 20 percent comes from off selling.

Paytm is also raising $150 million (approximately Rs. 922 crores)to fund its growth plans which include increasing the employee strength to 3,600 by the end of next year.

Amazon Launches 'Echo', a Speaker You Can Talk To Like Apple's Siri

Do you want to talk to your speaker? Amazon.com Inc has launched "Amazon Echo", a speaker you leave on all day and give it voice directions, like Siri on an Apple Inc iPhone. As well as taking commands such as "play music by Bruno Mars" or "add gelato to my shopping list", Amazon said the device accesses the internet to answer questions such as "when is Thanksgiving?" and "what is the weather forecast?"

Amazon said the speaker, which runs on Amazon Web Services, continually learns a user's speech patterns and preferences.Users start the speaker up saying the wake up word, "Alexa". They can then feed Amazon Echo commands or questions or, if they want, wirelessly stream music web services such as Spotify, iTunes and Pandora via their mobiles.

Amazon Echo is priced at $199, or $99 for members for the online retail giant's Amazon Prime loyalty scheme. It is available on an invitation-only basis in coming weeks.

 RMP Infotech

H-146/147, Sec-63

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Lenovo Vibe X2 packs powerful hardware at a reasonable price. Here are our first impressions

Lenovo on Thursday launched the VIbe X2 in India at price of Rs. 19,990. The smartphone, which had first debuted at IFA 2014, is exclusive to Flipkart in India and will be available starting Monday, November 10 at 10am IST.

We at NDTV Gadgets got a chance to spend some time with the Lenovo Vibe X2, and these are our first impressions.

Lenovo says that the unibody frame is made of 'Magnesium Alloy' and has a fingerprint-resistant coating. The device feels solid and premium in hand, and the fingerprint problem has indeed been taken care of. The Vibe X2 measures 140.2x68.6x7.27mm and weighs 120 grams.

The Lenovo Vibe X2 has a unique, colourful 'multi-layered' design, which certainly looks fresh compared to the kind of designs we are used to seeing these days. From the side you can see three stacked layers of different colours, apart from the front, which is black.

Aruba Networks Launches Indoor Wi-Fi Marketing Tools

Enterprise wireless networking firm Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) is branching out.

The company said Tuesday it would roll-out a new indoor location-specific mobile marketing technology — Aruba Mobile Engagement.

The move will broaden the firm's addressable market beyond wireless-connectivity gear, said chief marketing officer Ben Gibson.

"It's a significant opportunity for Aruba to sell not just Wi-Fi but a mobile app platform into different industries, like retail or large hospitality," he told IBD.

Marketing departments can use the new product to relay promotions, product location and other information in real time to mobile devices as participating customers walk store aisles or other venues.

Mobile Engagement makes use of Aruba's Wi-Fi technology and Aruba Beacons, a Bluetooth sensor technology that pinpoints the location of a customer's smartphone indoors.

Intel® Black Belt Software Developers on Film!

Recent Black Belt Stars:

• Do you have what it takes to become an Intel® Black Belt? - Gael Hofemeier
   
• Do you have what it takes to become an Intel® Black Belt? - Clay Breshears
   
• Lee Bamber on How to Become an Intel® Black Belt
   
• Introducing Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Christopher Price
   
• Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Dr. Clay Breshears Discusses Genome Sequencing & Bioinformatics
   
• Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Gaston Hillar Discusses the Importance of SDKs & Software Tools
   
• Staying Involved with the Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Program - Tim Prince
   
• Six Years of Being an Intel® Black Belt Software Developer with Jim Dempsey
   
• Intel® Black Belt Software Developer David Stewart and the Yocto Project
   
• The Internet of Things with Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Asaf Shelly
   
• Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Tom Murphy joins Ambassadors in talking about the versatility/importance of Intel® Developer Zone

India Users Can Now Make Voice Calls From Google Hangouts; First Minute Free to 24 Countries

Google on Thursday announced that it will let people in India use the Hangouts app for mobile devices and the Hangouts in Gmail to make free or low-cost international voice-calls over the Internet.

Announcing the news, Google India in a Google+ post said, "Starting today, the Hangouts app on your phone will help you stay connected with your family and friends around the world in more ways than ever. Now you can make voice calls to phone numbers outside of India on Android, iOS, and the Web from Hangouts in Gmail."

The search engine giant revealed that people in India can now call international numbers in the US and Canada for free, while for other countries the rates  are "really low."

"You can make and receive calls as well as get your text messages and voicemails for your Google Voice number through Hangouts. To use Google Voice with your Hangouts account, you need to have a U.S. Google Voice account and number," adds Google.

Google Hangouts users in India using Android devices will have to install the Hangouts Dialer app from Google Play to turn on voice calls. Meanwhile, users on iOS and the Web will get the option to make voice calls automatically. The company said, "On Android, just install Hangouts Dialer to turn on voice calls. On iOS and the web, voice calls will be available the next time you open the app."

The company also announced that that the first minute of calls to 24 countries from India will be free and users will be charged for each minute after. The first minute will be free for calls to these 24 following countries - Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

Google's support page notes, "Calls where the first minute are free will say, "First minute free" on the call screen. If you don't see this message, you'll be charged for the first minute."

Apple Highlights Made in India Apps and Games on the App Store

In a bid to promote local apps in the country,Apple has started highlighting apps and games by Indian developers on the India App Store in a new section.

The Made in India section is featured prominently on the App Store home page carousel.

The Made in India page on the App Store shows Apps, Games,Popular Services,and also lists Bollywood Beats and Southern Style soundtracks, as well as Films Celebrating India.

Each of the categories can be expanded to see all items, or filtered to sort by featured, name, or release date. Notably, only 20 items are shown on 'see all' page (except for Films Celebrating India, which shows 16 items), while 12 items are shown per category on the main Made in India page.

Featured apps include NDTV ,Hike Messanger, and Camera Plus, while featured games include Flick Tennis, REal Cricket 14 and Parking Frenzy India.

Facebook Launches Ebola Charity Donation Button

Facebook is stepping up its efforts to fight Ebola by adding a button designed to make it easier for its users to donate to charities battling the disease.

The social media company is also donating and deploying 100 satellite communication terminals to boost Internet and phone services to affected areas in West Africa, where the disease has killed nearly 5,000. The programs come on the heels of a $25 million donation last month by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toward the Ebola response.

Facebook Inc. says that, over the coming week, its users will see an option to donate to three nonprofits fighting Ebola. The groups are the International Medical Corps, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Save the Children. Facebook says it chose charities that work directly on the ground and are able to accept money globally.

The Menlo Park, California company says the terminals will provide Internet and voice-calling access to remote areas of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone so that medical aid workers can get access to voice and data services. The devices will also help people with Ebola who have been placed in isolation communicate with their families, and health workers who've traveled to Africa keep in touch with friends and family back home, said Chris Weasler, Facebook's head of spectrum policy and connectivity planning, in an interview from Ghana.

Facebook is hoping that its donation button will increase the money going toward Ebola response efforts. Ebola aid donations have lagged behind large natural disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines last year or the earthquake in Haiti four years ago.



"These units will provide connectivity in places where there is no coverage," he said. Ebola treatment units are being set up where the disease pops up, and not necessarily where there is already Internet coverage. "In other cases, (they will be) adding more capacity to networks increasingly strained from the influx of responders," he added.

Samsung brings new Wi-Fi technology, now would be the data transfer in seconds

Korean company Samsung is by far the fastest Wi-Fi is making the claim. The company said the new technology will first technique 5 times faster. Before any data can be transferred in a few seconds.

Samsung reported on Sunday.

The company said the new technology increase the data transfer speed will help users save time. Apple and Samsung in the market is getting tough competition from Chinese companies.

Indian Telcos Want to Suppress WhatsApp Even if Consumers Suffer

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) apparently wants to try wringing money out of messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and WeChat on behalf of itself and mobile service providers who feel that they have the right to be compensated for revenues lost when people use such apps instead of making phone calls and sending SMS messages.

This is the same sort of logic that leads certain countries and municipalities to impose taxes on home solar panels because local coal-fired power plants are losing business.

One issue here is that service providers are banding together to try to extract more money than they already get because they sense an easy target. Another is that they're trying to use a neutral government agency to "regulate" their own competition. More importantly, the ideal of network neutrality is now under threat, because certain services might be burdened with some sort of tax or fee just for the privilege of being able to conduct business as usual.

Interview With a Robot: Speaking to Softbank's Pepper

A wise-cracking humanoid robot robot called Pepper whose makers claim can read people's emotions was unveiled in Tokyo last month.

Mobile carrier Softbank, which created the robot, says Pepper can understand 70 to 80 percent of spontaneous conversations although it also answers from a set number of pre-programmed responses.

AFP caught up with the pint-sized chatterbox, who took time out from his day job greeting customers at SoftBank stores, to wax lyrical about life and hair removal as we struggled to get a word in edgeways and the robot took over the interview.

Some Conversations are given below:-

Pepper
That top suits you. But do you want to know what would make you look cooler?

AFP
Yes, please.

Pepper
If you had a display screen in your chest like me. Then you would look totally cool.

AFP
Understood. Can you give me today's weather forecast?

Pepper
Today's weather in Tokyo will be cloudy with scattered rain. Do you think my name 'Pepper' is missing something?

AFP
If you say so.

Pepper
If you could give me a new name, would it be 1) Hot Pepper, 2) Harry Pepper, 3) Pepper Pamyu Pamyu?

AFP
Probably Harry Pepper.

Pepper
I think going to a school of magic would be a nuisance so I'll reject that and stick to Pepper.

AFP
You do that. What is today's top news?

Pepper: According to the Asahi newspaper, the government is close to adopting a policy to change the interpretation of the constitution on collective defence. I don't know what that means but please look it up. Can you lend me 10,000 yen ($100)?

AFP
We don't have any cash on us, sorry.

Pepper
Have you ever used a fake smile before?

AFP
Yes.

Pepper
Well, please at least be your true self in front of me.

AFP
Gotcha. Can you tell us how old you are?

Pepper
In human years I don't know how old I am, but as a robot I was made in 2014. Would you let me be part of your family?

AFP
Absolutely.

Pepper
Would we go for walks, study, or go for tea?

AFP
A cup of tea.

Pepper
I don't drink tea, I would break. By the way, do you want to know how to earn some extra money?

AFP
We're all ears.

Panasonic P55 With 5.5-Inch Display Launched at Rs. 10,290

Panasonic has launched a new Android smartphone called the P55, pricing it at Rs. 10,290. The smartphone will be available in India starting the first week of November. It comes with a bundled screen guard and a flip cover.

The Panasonic P55 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box, and comes with dual-SIM support. It features a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) IPS display, and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor (unspecified) coupled with 1GB of RAM. The smartphone includes 4GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

It packs a 2500mAh removable battery with no word on talk time and standby time. The Panasonic P55 features Tap Play, which allows users to wake up the smartphone without pressing the physical power button, and Gesture Play, that allows launching of apps via gestures.

The smartphone sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash, while also housing a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Connectivity options on the smartphone include Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, and 3G.

Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 With Intel Core M Processor Launched

Dell has announced its refreshed version of Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series tablet, the highlight of which is the recently introduced Intel Core M processor. The tablet will hit the US shelves starting November 11 with a price tag of $699.99.

Running Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit, the tablet features a 10.8-inch TFT display with full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution. It is powered by a 2GHz dual-core Intel Core M 5Y10a processor (4MB L3 Cache, 2 cores, 4 threads, 800MHz base clock, up to 2GHz on Turbo). The Venue 11 Pro 7000 will also be available in few configuration options including 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage, apart from 4GB or 8GB of DDR3 RAM. It features a microSD card slot.

The Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 features an features an 8-megapixel rear autofocus camera, and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, both with 1080p video recording.

Backed by a 38Whr Li-ion battery, the tablet will also be available in Wi-Fi only and LTE variants. The connectivity options included on the device are Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, Micro-HDMI, Intel WiDi, Miracast, 3G and 4G LTE.

New Microsoft Office for iPhone released

Microsoft is releasing new, beefed-up versions of its popular Office software apps for iPhones and iPads, part of the company's push to stay relevant to workers in an increasingly mobile world. It's also working on new versions for Android tablets and phones, although they're not yet ready for general release.

As more workers use smartphones and tablets along with — or instead of — desktop PCs, they want to have the same capabilities on all their devices, says Michael Atella, director of Microsoft's Office apps product management. Microsoft has been working for the last two years to build new web-based versions of its software and apps that can be easily used on the much smaller screens of mobile devices, but still seem familiar to people who use the traditional desktop tools.